[Excerpt from author]One of the most important health goals was articulated by Lee Jong-wook: "Access to a motivated and supported health worker for every person in every village everywhere."Whether one is ill, in need of urgent care but denied access to essential services due to the absence of a health worker - or looking from the perspective of an over-stretched health worker who is inadequately equipped and supported, and brings barely poverty-level wages back to the family - the crisis in human resources for health (HRH) is an old problem which has developed right in front of us, and has now been exposed and accentuated by fresh forces.Yet two to three decades ago, as a health worker in Africa, I enjoyed decent wages and good working conditions; and this was the case in many other sub-Saharan African countries.